Boeing chairman Jim McNerney has announced the Boeing board of directors has authorised an additional $10 billion for the company’s share repurchase plan and declared that the company’s regular quarterly dividend will increase by approximately 50 per cent to 73 cents per share.

“These actions reflect sustained, strong operational performance by our businesses, increasing cash flow, and our confidence in the future,” said McNerney.

“Our team’s relentless focus on business execution and competitiveness is providing the financial strength to continue investing in our core businesses while increasing our returns to shareholders.”

The $10 billion repurchase authorisation approved today is in addition to the approximately $0.8 billion remaining from the 2007 stock repurchase authorisation.

Repurchase activity for 2013 is complete and is expected to resume in January 2014.

“Our balanced cash deployment strategy provides increased dividends and share repurchase authorisation to deliver consistent returns to our shareholders while maintaining investment in productivity and innovation for future growth,” said Boeing executive vice president Greg Smith.

The timing and volume of repurchases are at the discretion of Boeing management, however it is currently expected that the share repurchases will be made over the next two to three years.

Repurchases may be made on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.

The dividend declared is payable March 7th, 2014, to shareholders of record as of February 14th, 2014.